we've ben furry, furry busy!!!

several cats have emailed or commented to ask how we are . . . we're sorry for being gone so long, but there's been so much going on. i (bat) get to catch you up.

last you heard, holly, the christmas miracle kitty, was pregnant! on february 24th, just past midnight in the wee hours of the morning, she gave birth to FOUR tiny kittens! mom moved holly and the babies to the guest room where me and bandit wouldn't bother them. when the kittens were just five weeks old, holly made a break for it and escaped by knocking out the window screen! she never got used to mom and the cousin. guess she was just too feral. anyway, we don't think she meant to leave her kittens. in fact, she kept walking 'round the outside of the house at night crying, but mom could never catch her again. mom said she saw her about two weeks ago one night very late, but she doesn't see her very often.

fortunately the kittens were old enough to drink kitten milk on their own and to eat soft kitten food, so they grew up healthy. when they were about ten weeks old, mom took three of the four up to franklin, texas where they went to new homes. shadow went to be a little girl's new best friend, and zee and emmett went to be barn cats. mom runs into their humans periodically for work, and they say they're all doing quite well.

the fourth kitten, ed, was mommy's favorite, and mommy didn't really want to give ed away, but mom knew that three cats was really too much for our house. so she did the next best thing: she gave ed (who's a girl, by the way) to our next door human, mark.

ed was very happy at mark's, but mark's son, who doesn't live with him but only comes to visit not very often, is allergic (or so he claims!) and told mark it was either him or ed! what could he do" well, we would have chosen ed, but mark loves his son, so he asked mommy of she would take ed back. now, mommy was very happy to have ed back, because ed was her favorite kitten from holly's litter.

so then we were three. and we were pretty happy, even though ed took some getting used to.

but getting ed back made another good thing happen. we gots a DAD! remember mark, the neighbor who took ed? well . . . he and mommy were already friends, but they started spending more time together, first when he was going to give ed a home, then when ed lived with him, then after ed came back to our house. pretty soon they started dating, and now they're getting MARRIED next march.

we love dad. he loves us, too, especially bandit, who is his cat now he says.

but wait! there's more! dad likes cats, and he has some friend who live in the country on a farm. he went to stay with them while he did some work near where they lived, and he told mom about a cute little ginger kitten about the same age and size as ed. a few weeks later, mom went with him to visit his friends . . . and they came home with TOMMY!

so now we are FOUR! and four really is too many for our house!

ed doesn't like living with all of us, and she wants to be an only cat where she can have ALL the attention. so mommy and dad are trying to get a nice lady friend of theirs named carla to give ed a home. mommy feels a little bad, especially since i like ed a lot and mom's afraid i'll miss her a lot if she goes to a new home. mommy says she won't let just anyone have ed, but she trusts carla to give ed a good home. we'll just have to see what happens.

mommy and dad play with us all every day and dad especially likes to play with us with the red dot (mom says it's called a laser pointer) and the whirlybird! we love love LOVE the whirly bird. especially ed, who can jump awfully high for such a little girl.

mom says the only thing that would make life better would be if we would learn to scoop our own litter boxes, but, hey, we'er not stupid! let the humans be our slaves!

bat (and bandit and ed and tommy)